White Olive Tree

Chapter 20

Chapter 20
The night in the battle zone is restless.
At eight o'clock in the evening, before the sun set, Song Ran heard the sound of artillery fire from a distance, and the sound of gunfire was even more endless.  There were a few shots very close to the hotel where I was staying, and the closest seemed to be on the next street.
But everyone else in the building turned a deaf ear and seemed to have gotten used to it.
As soon as Song Ran arrived at the residence, he got acquainted with other foreign reporters on the same floor.  After everyone learned that she was the photographer of the news photo "CARRY", they all looked at her with admiration.
A French reporter sighed: "Whenever I can take a successful news photo like CARRY, I can go back to my country with peace of mind!"
Song Ran felt that there was something wrong with these words, but she didn't think about it for a while, and talked about the next topic.
After a simple dinner, a few people met to go to the border to have a look.
Everyone got into the car of an Italian reporter and left the residence.  Arriving at a street, there was a hail of bullets ahead.  Song Ran was still a little nervous. Unexpectedly, the reporters in the car were used to it, so they parked the car on the side of the road and waited patiently.
The Italian reporter even smoked.
Song Ran hesitated for a while, and asked, "Is it okay if we... stop here?"
"Don't worry, my dear lady," the Italian reporter turned his head and raised his eyebrows at her, "these are government forces and anti-government forces, and harming us will not benefit either of them." He pointed at the  Italian flag American flag Canadian flag in the corner of the windshield.
Song Ran asked: "Then what if there is a terrorist organization?"
The other party made an exaggerated frightened expression: "Then it's best to run away. They are short of money recently, and the hostages sent to their door will not be taken away."
"It's not that scary." A Japanese reporter comforted her, saying, "They sometimes pick countries. Europe and the United States have some historical issues with this land, but we don't in East Asia."
Song Ran then nodded.
While chatting, the sound of gunfire in front stopped.
"OK!" The Italian reporter threw down his cigarette butt and drove past the street where the battle took place.
Song Ran tightened his helmet, subconsciously lowered his body, but the camera was aimed at the window.  She saw soldiers hiding behind the walls of the crumbling buildings.
The car flying the national flag passed the street quietly, and it didn't take long to get out.
Bang bang bang, the fight started again.

Song Ran: "..."
Outside the car window, there were still pedestrians walking on the street. They turned a deaf ear to the gunshots in the distance and regarded them as background sounds.
Hapo is an important town in the western part of the Eastern Kingdom, with a large population and a developed economy.  Even though we are deeply mired in war, there are still many people who are burdened by their livelihoods and cannot leave or leave.  Or tired of faith - they think the government will win soon and the war will end soon.  That's what they thought when the war first started.
Not long after walking, there was a hustle and bustle ahead, and the streets were densely crowded with vehicles and people who were about to leave the country.
I can't move anymore.
Several reporters got out of the car with their equipment.  Surrounded by people, it was impossible to act collectively. Everyone made an appointment for a gathering time and dispersed on the spot.
Song Ran chose the angle, recorded a simple report video, and followed the traffic.  The street was full of people with their families. Song Ran observed along the way and found that there were not many good cars, and few people were well-dressed.
It's been almost two months since the war started.  50% of the country's land area has been ignited by the flames of war, and everyone who can leave has left, and those who are only fleeing now are ordinary people who have no way to retreat and are homeless.
However, she soon discovered that most of the people here could not get out - most of them did not have the documents to enter neighboring countries.  They just feel that the country behind them is no longer safe, so they can only keep going forward and forward, squeeze out a small shelter, and seek a glimmer of hope of escape.
The third time Song Ran saw someone who seemed to be bargaining, he stopped.
A middle-aged man from Dongguo was holding some visa application forms, and was talking to a young man wearing glasses.  Behind the young man is a beautiful young woman holding a baby in her arms, and there are two more standing at her feet.  The child has big eyes and long eyelashes.
The two men argued for a long time, but they did not reach an agreement.  The middle-aged man raised his hand and turned away.  The young man looked desperate and hugged his head helplessly.
Song Ran met his eyes and felt that he might speak English, so she asked him what happened.
The young husband shrugged and said, "He can get us out, but it costs fifty thousand dollars each. Our family costs two hundred thousand dollars. I..." He smiled and shook his head, "I don't have two  One hundred thousand." He smiled, and turned his head sideways after speaking, his nose and eye sockets were also red.
His wife put her arms around her husband to show comfort, and the husband kissed his wife on the forehead.
He told Song Ran that their parents had tried their best.  The parents decided they were old and not worth the money, but let the couple and the kids go.
At this time, the Dongguo people next to him started talking to them.
Song Ran couldn't understand, but from the hand gestures, she probably guessed that the compatriots were persuading them—let the husband go out with a pair of children first, and then come back to pick up his wife and baby.
The young husband shook his head with a smile, put his arms around his wife and led the two little ones away.
Song Ran held the camera and continued to walk forward. There were more and more similar scenes in the camera - fierce disputes, humble begging, desperate sighs, and forbearable tears...
About half an hour later, Song Ran finally arrived at the border.
It's three o'clock in the morning in China, and most people are sleeping peacefully.  Song Ran couldn't live broadcast, but still recorded a video report to the machine.
In the lens, the afterglow of the setting sun shrouded the border, and it was vast:
"The checkpoint behind me is the junction of the Eastern Kingdom and the Egyptian Kingdom. Some of the people who went to the Egyptian Kingdom stayed there, and some continued to go to the next country, away from this land of war.
Looking behind me, I can see that there are people in the dark.  It's so noisy right now, I can barely hear myself because there are so many drivers honking their horns angrily.  And more people who couldn't get out screamed and roared.
The borderland Egypt has a small land area and has already accepted nearly a million refugees out of humanitarian reasons. It is really unsustainable.  Now the number of entry quotas has been narrowed, and some of them have gradually become capital for bureaucratic transactions.  "
After Song Ran said this sentence, his mind flashed and he realized that he had made a mistake and had to cut it out later.  But in front of the camera, she is still calm,
"I'm afraid less than one in a thousand people present can go to Egypt smoothly. More people are just carrying their families, children and luggage, waiting aimlessly, waiting for the Egyptian government to kindly open the border and let them pass."
When Song Ran put away the tripod, he thought that luckily it wasn't a live broadcast, otherwise it would be over.  That sentence can be written in the book in the future, and the official TV station will be held accountable when it is broadcast.
She was too careless.  Or maybe her emotions were affected.
She looked at the faces waiting in despair, her heart was like the slowly dimming sky above her head at this moment.
It's getting dark.
She put on her backpack and walked back. On the way she ran into Sasin by accident.  Sasin was very surprised, he didn't expect that she would come to Hapo City.
It turned out that he had just returned from the war zone and stopped by to investigate the issue of refugee entry and exit.  But he doesn't live in a hotel, he lives in a B&B.  Sahin explained that he was going to shoot in the war zone earlier, and asked her if she would go.
Song Ran immediately agreed and wrote him her address.
The two said goodbye in the crowd.
At half past nine in the evening, the sun finally set.
Song Ran shuttled back and forth among the crowd, and the faces of the Dongguo people in front of him were dimmed in the fading sunlight.
When we got back to the car, it was getting dark.
Many local people are still queuing. They wrapped themselves in robes and fell asleep on the ground; mothers held ignorant children in their arms.
Everyone got into the car and drove back.
As soon as the sun went down, the sky turned dark in an instant.
There are no street lights on the street, it is dim and hazy, and the windows are like ghostly eyes.
Several people returned to the residence smoothly. The administrator was a woman from the Eastern Kingdom, who told them that the curfew in Hapo City would start tomorrow, and civilians could not go out after 8:00 p.m.
Song Ran asked: "Is war going to start again?"
The woman spread her hands: "Yes."
Song Ran didn't sleep well that night. There was gunfire and gunfire outside after a while. I don't know who was fighting with whom.
She thought of Li Zan. She didn't know where in the city he was, if he was asleep, and if he was safe.
Although she didn't sleep well, she woke up early the next morning.  She edited the video recorded last night and sent it back to China.
When Xiaoqiu received it, she told her to pay attention to safety, and said that she saw the special operations team program on the national news channel and the military channel.
Xiao Qiu said: "Shen Bei's boyfriend is really outstanding."
"..." Song Ran had nothing to say.
Xiao Qiu added: "However, the two of them may not be right recently."
Song Ran: "Why?"
Xiaoqiu: "She likes to show off so much, everyone praised that episode of the show, but she didn't say anything."
"..." Song Ran didn't talk much, she still had something to do, so she said she would go to work first.
At seven o'clock in the morning, Song Ran went downstairs, and Sa Xin had just arrived.
The two simply ate a piece of bread for breakfast and set off.  Song Ran put on a body armor and a helmet with PRESS printed on it to avoid being accidentally injured during the battle.
The streets are empty and quiet, and the battle zone is full of gunfire.
The cement and sand shaken from the walls were scattered here and there on the ground.  The walls along the street have long been beaten into black honeycombs.  But the sun was shining brightly, and the sky was blue and high.
Song Ran was chatting with Sasin about the $50,000. Suddenly there was a gunshot in front of him. The building here trembled twice, and a pile of cement blocks fell down, hitting the helmets of Song Ran and Sasin.
Song Ran patted the ashes on his shoulder and asked, "What did you just say? I didn't hear clearly."
"I said that at this time, corrupt officials who sell overseas permits should be shot."
The two walked into an abandoned building while chatting.  The sound of guns and guns outside has been deafening, and speech is inaudible.  The two set up their equipment, found cover, and lay down between the broken walls to film the battlefield outside the building.
Grenades, tear gas, grenades, machine guns... all kinds of munitions took turns, and there were constant casualties on both sides.
Halfway through the fight, the two sides bombarded each other with mortars and rockets. The shells dragged their tails and drew arcs under the blue sky, bombing in turn.  The whole earth trembled.
Song Ran covered her head and covered her ears, the mud clods falling from upstairs kept hitting her helmet and body armor.
She lay on the ground, clutched the helmet mask tightly, plugged in the earplugs, squinted her eyes and struggled to adjust the focus and direction.
It took a long time for the two sides to stop, and her ears were full of buzzing, buzzing like tens of thousands of bees.
The downstairs finally turned into a gunfight. Song Ran buried her head on the ground for a while to accumulate energy.
Turning his head to look at Sahin, he was holding the camera with one hand and rubbing his forehead vigorously with the other.
   "are you OK?"
"It's okay." Sahin raised his head and said, "I thought this war would end in two weeks. But...it's been almost three months, and the government forces have tried their best. But the anti-government forces are backed by forces from other countries  .Now terrorist organizations are also involved. I'm really worried, Song..."
   "worry about what?"
"I'm worried that my country is going to end. Did you know that this land has a history of three thousand years?"
"I know." Song Ran said, comforting in vain, "It will be fine. Sasin."
Even though she said that, she didn't know if it would be all right.

There was a hail of bullets and shells outside the building, and the sound of footsteps came from downstairs.
Sahin looked down through the cracked floor and saw several foreign reporters.
Sahin laughed, and suddenly said: "Our suffering has given many people a way to make a living, and it has also given many people honor. This land is like a huge tree full of tragedies, and everyone who comes from afar  Everyone can reach out and grab a handful of fruit from the tree, harvest a little fruit, and then leave without looking back, forgetting about the tree."
Song Ran got a thorn in the face, it was hot.
She suddenly remembered the scene a few weeks ago.  They rushed to the battle scene, but Sahin turned to protect his compatriots.  As for her, because of the photo of CARRY, several domestic and even international news media have sent special invitations to her.
Song Ran said softly, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry, Song, I'm not criticizing everyone, let alone you. God knows how much I like you. What I said just now, I just feel that this world is a bit ridiculous."
   "I know."
Just as he was speaking, there was an explosion from a certain direction behind him.  The two turned their heads at the same time. It was a residential area two blocks behind them—a non-combat zone.  Now nine o'clock in the morning is the peak time for residents to go out.
Song Ran and Sa Xin looked at each other, and at the same time quickly put on their bags, put away their cameras and equipment, and hurried downstairs.
The two rushed all the way to the street where the incident happened, but they didn't see any casualties.
The huge street was empty, and an exploded car was burning on the side of the street. The glass of the outer shell was shattered all over the place, but there was no one in the car.  A blast barrier made of sandbags surrounded the burning car. 
Several combat soldiers of the peacekeeping force walked on the street, checking residents' vehicles one by one.
Benjamin was also there, gesturing at the people in the windows of a residential building, and shouting: "Stand back! Stay away from the windows!"
People in the buildings on both sides closed their doors and windows and hid.
And in the center of the wide and deserted street, there is a circle of sandbag explosion-proof barriers half a meter high.  Inside, a man is bowed and doing his homework.  It was too far away to see clearly, Song Ran immediately used the camera to zoom in on the image, just looking at his shoulders and the back of his head, her heart suddenly softened.
She knew it was him.
Inside the explosion-proof wall, a child was sitting in a child seat with a bomb strapped to his body. The child raised his head and howled, his eyes and nose tangled up.  His parents stood aside and secretly wiped away tears.
No one approached the sandbag barrier within ten meters.  A few peacekeepers with rifles were vigilantly looking at the surrounding environment; there were four or five anti-aircraft machine gun and heavy machine gun strongholds on both sides of the road to prevent air strikes and assaults; there were also a few lurking snipers on the tall buildings on both sides,  To prevent enemy sniper.
Everyone is ready to guard against possible enemies that may appear around them.
At this moment, a whistle suddenly sounded from inside the sandbag wall, playing the tune of "Laputa in the Sky", melodiously, and the crying of the children soon disappeared.  The little guy stared at the young soldier who was dismantling the bomb curiously with his big black grape-like eyes.
Song Ran showed his press card, and because he knew Benjamin, he entered the blockade very smoothly.
Benjamin was quite happy to see an acquaintance, and asked, "Did you come yesterday?"
Song Ran was surprised: "How do you know?"
Benjamin smiled mysteriously: "Because I can feel your breath."
Song Ran: "..."
Seeing that his eyes were flushed, she asked, "Did you not sleep all night?"
"Too many bombs." Benjamin said, cursing, "Those sons of a bitch."
Song Ran turned her head to look at the middle of the road. Covered by sandbags, she could see two or three ups and downs from time to time. It was the couple and Li Zan.
She pointed and asked, "Can I go over and have a look?"
Benjamin said: "You can pass if you are not afraid of death. But it is best not to." He glanced at his watch and said, "There is no time."
Song Ran frowned: "What if it's time?"
"We can only give up. We are not God, and we cannot save everyone." Benjamin said, and suddenly shouted to the other end, "Lee, are you OK?" (Are you okay?)
Li Zan on the other side ignored him, but the child started crying again.

Benjamin stared at Song Ran and spread his hands: "Does my voice sound like a devil? Why is that child crying again?"
Song Ran: "..."
Benjamin shouted again: "You need to give up?" (Do you want to give up?)
This time, a hand stretched out from the pile of sandbags, with the palm facing down horizontally, and the palm swung horizontally twice, indicating a capital NO.
Benjamin: "I bet you gonna die!" (I bet you're going to die.)
So, that hand made a middle finger gesture.
Song Ran: "..."
Suddenly she couldn't hold back, touched her nose and smiled.
Benjamin turned around to look at Song Ran with a smile, shook his head and said helplessly, "Hey, this annoying guy."